Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
by Rianna1
Summary: Angst/death/songfic. Tiny shonen ai hint (3+4). A piece-of-cake mission goes horribly wrong. My first venture into GW fiction, written in early 2001.


Notes: This was my first GW-fic ever. It's over a year old and I think I'd seen Endless Waltz   
at the time, but I'm not too sure. All things considered, there's some unintentional OOC and   
complete ignorance regarding the mechs.   
The song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is from Les Miserables.  
  
Warning: Really big Heero angst overload. Gag me, please.  
  
Standard disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing, I don't own Les Miserables.   
I'm not making any money from this. I am a musician (read: I am dirt poor).   
A lawsuit would get you a piano that needs tuned and a free 6-inch sub.  
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
[There's a grief that can't be spoken  
There's a pain goes on and on  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Now my friends are dead and gone]  
  
Heero Yuy sat at his kitchen table, staring into a cup of coffee but not   
truly seeing anything. The coffee had long since turned cold, but it was of   
no concern to the Japanese pilot. Four days. Four days for four lives lost in   
a hopeless battle.  
  
Heero's hand tightened around the ceramic mug, causing it to shatter and cut   
into his palms. He barely took notice of the blood spilling from his hands.   
Better his own than that of another innocent being.  
"I can't understand this," he murmured.  
  
[Here they talked of revolution  
Here it was they lit the flame  
Here they sang about tomorrow  
But tomorrow never came]  
  
***flashback***  
Duo climbed into his Gundam with a whoop of excitement.  
  
"Today is the day OZ goes down!" he shouted into his comm unit. A nervous   
laugh came Quatre, while the others remained silent.  
  
"What's wrong with you guys? This could be the last battle we ever have to   
fight. It'll all be over! You could at least show some enthusiasm."  
  
"Duo?" Heero's voice came over the comm unit.  
  
"Yeah, Heero?"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"If you insist," Duo grumbled, deciding to take Heero a bit more seriously   
than usual. Who knew what the blue-eyed pilot was capable of when he was in   
his battle mode?  
  
[From the table in the corner  
They could see a world reborn  
And they rose with voices ringing  
And I can hear them now  
The very words that they had sung  
Became their last communion  
On the lonely barricade at dawn]  
  
They'd arrived at their destination without incident, Duo yammering away the   
whole time. The five took a moment to mentally prepare themselves for the   
coming battle, when a shot came from behind them and nicked the Deathscythe.  
  
"What the...?" Wufei cried. They all spun their Gundams around... to find an   
army of mobile suits waiting for them.  
  
"It's an ambush! 500 mobile suits at least!" Trowa shouted, skillfully   
dodging a volley of fire.  
  
"But how could they have known? We were supposed to take them by surprise,"   
Quatre said, just barely hiding the panic that was quickly arising within him.  
  
"Never mind that," Duo snapped. "We've got to try and complete the..." He   
was cut off in mid-sentence. The Deathscythe had exploded in a huge ball of fire.  
  
"DUO!" the remaining pilots cried.  
  
The army quickly closed in on them, firing mercilessly. The pilots fought   
with all their hearts, but they were so outnumbered that their struggle could   
at best be described as futile. Within the next ten minutes, Wufei and Trowa   
had followed Duo to the same fiery death.  
  
Even more mobile suits arrived, so the OZ army only gained strength as the   
number of Gundams dwindled to two.  
  
"Heero," Quatre said, his voice soft but firm with resolve. "Get out of   
here. Go back while you still can."  
  
"Nani?! Not on your life, Quatre. I'm not going to leave you just to save my own hide."  
  
"I'm serious, Heero. One of us has got to live and it's going to be you. I   
need to be with Trowa, anyway." Quatre was crying and taking out mobile suits   
at the same time.  
  
"But Quatre..."  
  
"Go, damn you!"  
With that, Heero shot down one last mobile suit and fled.  
***end flashback***  
  
[Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me  
That I live and you are gone  
There's a grief that can't be spoken  
There's a pain goes on and on]  
  
Heero shivered when he recalled the urgency in Quatre's voice. He'd known he   
was going to die, damn him. Heero had always regarded the blonde as a bit   
immature and more than a bit spoiled, what with those 40 Maguanacs who would   
lick Quatre's shoes clean if he so desired.  
  
"Damn you, Winner, did you have to die before I realized you were so fucking noble?"  
Of course he did. Every single one of them had had to die before Heero   
could've known what they all meant to him.  
  
[Phantom faces at the window  
Phantom shadows on the floors  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Where my friends will meet no more]  
  
***flashback***   
Even pushing Wing to its limit couldn't take Heero far enough away that he   
could pretend he didn't see the blinding flash of light behind him the   
announced the end of both Sandrock and Quatre Raberba Winner.   
  
He tried to bite back a scream of rage, but failed miserably. He had   
escaped with his life and with his Gundam in almost perfect condition. But   
the others... He forced the thought from his mind and focused on the issue at   
hand: Getting back home.  
***end flashback***  
  
[Oh, my friends, my friends, don't ask me  
What your sacrifice was for  
Empty chairs at empty tables  
Where my friends will sing no more]  
  
Heero clenched and unclenched his teeth repeatedly in an attempt to stop his   
chin from trembling. His efforts were in vain. A lone crystalline tear found   
its way out of his eye and down his cheek, followed by others until twin   
rivers ran down his face.  
  
After shedding hundreds of tears in memory of his fellow pilots and...   
friends, the torrent of emotion slowly reduced itself to quiet, hicuppy sobs.  
"Now my name lives up to its meaning," Heero whispered. "Now I am truly one alone."  
  
---------------  
  
Owari. *nervous bow* 


End file.
